


What if?

by Phantomgirl17



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Depression, Gen, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 02:51:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15787446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantomgirl17/pseuds/Phantomgirl17
Summary: Danny decides it’s finally time to tell his parents that he’s Danny Phantom, but he's worried about what their response to him will be. What happens if he tells them? But, what happens to Danny if he doesn't tell them...?





	What if?

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with more! I know I said I was going to do a story with some chapters next, but I decided to put that on hold for right now while I finish typing it out by the chapter, and then post it by the chapter on a regular basis. But I did say I would post again before September and this is what I've been typing during my free period at school. Hope you enjoy it, and still, I own nothing!

Danny sighed as he looked at his two best friends. They were laughing and having fun with one another as he sat in his own silence, thinking about what he was going to do.

You need to tell them the truth. It’s been almost four years since the accident.

Danny had been feeling like himself up until the past few weeks when he felt himself falling into a depression. His only thought keeping him at the point of sanity being that he still had his two friends and that the town needed him. And there was really no way for him to die, anyway. He was already half dead.

He pulled his head up from his arms as he heard Sam calling his name and saw her shaking his arm to try and get his attention.

“Are you okay?”

Danny looked at her and watched her slowly pull back. He knew what she could see. Dark circles had formed under his eyes and his skin had become even paler than usual. He always felt like he was going to be sick, and the ectoplasm that flowed through his veins gave him a greenish tint to the paler places on his face that made it look like he would be sick.

“Danny, you don’t look so good. Is this still about your parents?”

Danny brought his head back down so that it was resting on his arms and sighed.

“Yeah… I just don’t know what to do. My heart says to tell them, they are my family, they deserve to know. But my brain keeps telling me to keep it a secret - what if they destroy me? I don’t know what to do anymore.”

His hair fell over his eyes as he tried to push his face farther into his arms to avoid seeing his friends’ reaction to what he was thinking. All he felt was that they knew he was depressed and through his hair saw the two of them exchange a worried glance.

“Dude,” Tucker started. “It’s gonna be okay. Your parents love you, remember? You. They won’t care if you’re half ghost.”

“But what if they don’t want that half of me? If they try and remove it. Both halves of me would die.”

A worried voice had come from Danny’s mouth as he told them this and he knew that he shouldn’t have opened his mouth to say anything from the beginning. Yes, his human half would become unstable and fail to survive, and his ghost half would do the same if they were ripped apart from one another… especially if done incorrectly. He only knew of two ways to do it properly so he could still live, and his parents had neither. Vlad has the ghost gauntlets, and his parents had destroyed the ghost catcher after Technus had taken control of the house.

His friends knew what he was thinking about, he could tell. Sam stood up and walked over to him, gently placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Danny, it’s going to be alright. Remember that we will always be here for you. And if you don’t want to tell them, you don’t have to. But if you do just let us know and we’ll…”

Danny pushed her hand off of his shoulder and stood up, anger rising in his gut.

“I don’t need you two to be able to talk to my own parents. And I don’t know how I would tell them or even if I’m going to tell them. I’m outta here… see ya.”

He stormed off in another direction, leaving Sam with a shocked look on her face and Tucker in silence. He turned to see them talking and then Tucker running up behind him.

“Danny, we go to college next year… don’t you want them to know before you leave?”

“No, Tucker. I don’t. Leave me alone. You guys can’t influence my choice.”

Tucker stopped walking and heard him grumble on his way back to Sam,

“Talk about moody…”

He looked behind himself and scowled. He didn’t need them telling him what to do. He could make his own choices. It wasn’t their problem. To be honest, he didn’t think his powers were to be anyone’s problem but his own. They were his responsibility and now his friends were trying to get him to tell people. But then he started thinking again as he walked back to his house.

Maybe they’re right. Maybe my family should know about my powers. Even if they don’t love me anymore, I will be leaving. And, maybe it would clear up my depression. I always have wanted to tell them. Even from the very beginning. Maybe this is my chance to let them know and who knows? Maybe they’ll accept me.

He listened as his heart screamed at him to stop lying, but his brain told him he would be destroyed. He smacked himself across the face as he saw his house coming into view as he tried to clear his mind.

Danny slowly walked up to his room and waited several hours for sleep to find him, but his dreams haunted him until he couldn’t find the energy to try and sleep again. His first dream woke him up with a cold sweat. He had to hold back a scream and shivers from the second. The third one only made his depression worse, and finally had him decide to stay up the rest of the night.

The first dream Danny remembered was horrific. He saw it over and over again in his mind as he sat awake. He remembered when his parents took to strapping him to a table and then pulling him apart one piece at a time, yanking out his molecules trying to see what happened to make him a ghost. He watched as they took his DNA and broke it to pieces that were so unstable he fell apart in front of them, and they were only upset because they couldn’t find the ghost he was able to turn into.

The second dream danced around in his brain like there was nothing could stop the worst from happening. He saw himself telling his parents that he needed to talk to them about the ghost boy. Then he revealed himself to them and saw his dad pass out and heard his mom scream and yank out one of their gadgets. She held it to his nose as she questioned him. “Where’s my son you freak?” “Mom! It’s not what you think!” “Don’t call me mom. You aren’t my son.” He felt the heat from his mom’s weapon as she charged a blast. He watched himself try to flee, but it was too late. His head was blasted off and yet he still watched his mom prod around at his remains with a scalpel. Yet she couldn’t find his ghost half.

His third dream was simple, but it kept him awake. It was what he had been considering doing for a very long time. He ran away. He ran away from his family forever. Never telling his secret to them or letting them know that he loved them. They thought that he was dead, even though it wasn’t exactly wrong.

As sweat beads rolled down the back of his neck, Danny paced his room. It was going to be Saturday, and he was expected to spend the day with his family on Sunday. He had a day on his own to make up his mind. Would he tell them or not? His feet quietly tapped the floor until he couldn’t take it anymore.

The lock on his bedroom door was locked and he sat on his bed. He slowly lifted himself up with his ghost powers and floated just above his bed in a position that looked like he was laying on his back. He floated there thinking things over as he watched the sunrise. 

He considered what his parents would do. It could be positive or negative for him, and it could be like his dreams or not like his dreams. He felt his hairs stand on end as his parents woke up and started walking around the house. His concentration broke and he felt himself falling onto his bed to hide his powers when his parents walked past his room, even though the door was locked.

“Crap.”

Danny rubbed the back of his head after he hit in on his headboard and walked quietly to the door to listen to his family that was going downstairs.

“When we catch that ghost kid, we’re gonna be sure to be the best ghost hunters in Amity Park!”

Danny felt his dad’s voice booming from the kitchen and sighed as he heard his mom’s answer to his statement.

“Well, we can’t just destroy him. He has to know something that he can tell us as important information. And if he doesn’t talk, we can dissect him and figure out how the ghosts are functioning.”

Hearing this, Danny felt his heart sink. They hated the other half of him. No questions to it. The ghost boy would be destroyed by them, even if it meant destroying the son it was connected to.

His depression worsened when Sam and Tucker tried to contact him. He knew they would bring it up and try to get him to tell his parents. He didn’t answer their calls.

After it was noon and Danny had been through several hours of thinking things over and dealing with depression, Danny felt his stomach growl at him. He sighed as he knew that he would have to at least say hi to his family as he went for food.

He pretended to just have woken up and “stumbled” down the stairs and into the kitchen. He grabbed food and pretended to be half asleep as he searched the fridge.

“Good morning sweetie!”

Danny grunted in response to his mom’s annoying voice as she tried to get him to talk.

“Would you like to go do anything today with your father and me?”

His head shook slightly to make it look like he wasn’t thinking and had just gotten up as he trudged back up to his room. But his brain raced with new thoughts.

“They love you.”

“We’re always going to be here for you”

Maybe they do love me. Maybe they will accept me. Maybe I’m not such a freak as I thought I was to them.

With his new thoughts, he felt his gloom lifted. His depression majorly lifted, and Danny started feeling like himself again. He smiled a bit as he closed his door, locking it again, and then sitting at his desk to eat lunch. He texted Sam and Tucker both: “I think I’m gonna tell them…”

Then he put his phone down and leaned back in his chair to wait for a response. Sam gave him a big smiley face and a hug, as well as a few thumbs up and said: “good for you Danny, I knew you could do it!” While Tucker sent him a couple of thumbs up and said “it’s going to be alright. We’re still here for you if you need us.”

He smiled again and felt like things were going to go well. He would tell them tomorrow evening after all of his chores were done and he had helped clean the kitchen after dinner. Danny had decided he wanted to be on their good side when he told them that he was the ghost boy.

He just needed to decide how to tell them. Would he fly in as Danny Phantom, or walk up to them as Danny Fenton? He needed to plan that out for right now while he had the time, and he knew that it would pass quickly. Time was never slow now that he had to be planning to reveal himself to his family. Especially when he needed to find a way that would make them more likely to accept him.

That next night would be the worst night of Danny’s life, except for when he got his powers. All he remembered was a bright light accompanied by excruciating pain for several more hours. His friends had been there and saw what happened and said he wouldn’t wake up for a while. But he remembered after he woke up, everything still hurt so badly he never wanted to move again for the next several hours. The next day it was better, but he had no control over his powers and was always messing things up with them. He remembered how many beakers he broke in chemistry and snickered to himself.

His mind raced as he tried to get some rest since he barely got any sleep Friday night, but he watched the clock creep on until around 3 in the morning, his nerves keeping him awake until his body gave out and refused to stay awake any longer. He had no dreams that night, and Danny saw only blackness as he slept for the first time in a long time.

He awoke to feel that his depression had returned to him and that he had butterflies in his stomach. That evening he would be revealing Danny Phantom to his parents. He tried to tell himself that no matter what happened, he needed to keep himself calm all day until after dinner. No matter what his parents did, he still needed to keep calm. Theoretically, he thought it would be easy. But his nerves proved otherwise. He jumped every time someone spoke and nearly gave himself away at lunch before he was ready.

Not until after dinner. Calm down before they get worried or suspicious. Nothing happens until after dinner.

When his mom said he looked like he didn’t sleep very well he blabbed out, “It’s a lie. I’m never out hunting ghosts all night!” Thankfully mumbled enough that nobody understood him and he got to correct himself saying, “I’m alright. I was just up doing homework with Tucker all night.”

Danny sighed in relief when he saw a relieved look on his mom’s face and she went back to doing work around the house while his dad was in the lab. She bought another one of his lies. After tonight, he shouldn’t have to lie to them again for a really long time.

He hated lying to anybody, especially his parents. It made him feel guilty inside and brought him to think that maybe he really was an evil being from another dimension. His depression only worsened as he thought about this, even though he knew he wasn’t evil and that he fought the villains. But he sighed and kept thinking about how he hated lying.

How many lies have I given them? How many more will I have to give? I can’t always be like this. I don’t need anyone else knowing, but I need my parents to know my secret. I lie to them almost daily, while with others, it’s generally not lying. I just ask to be excused, and they don’t know where I’m going, and they don’t care where I’m going. These are my parents. They’re probably worried sick about me every time I say I have to be somewhere. How do I tell them the truth after getting used to lying to them?

He took a deep breath and tried to hide his fear and depression from his whole family. Jazz noticed that he wasn’t acting right, however, and she pulled him aside to talk in her room.

“Alright, spill it. What’s wrong?”

“I’m gonna tell mom and dad my secret tonight.”

“You what?! You can’t do that!”

“Jazz, I’m sick of lying to them. It’s been four years since I got my powers, they deserve to know.”

“But… but… Danny… how do you think they’re going to take it?”

“I don’t know. It’s either gonna be for better or for worse. Hopefully for the better. I don’t want them to destroy me thinking that I’m no longer their son.”

“Do you want me to be there?”

“Actually, yeah. But, if you could keep your mouth closed unless they try to destroy me, or unless they talk to you specifically, that would be great.”

“Of course. You know I’m always here for you.”

“Heh, thanks. For once I’m glad you graduated college a few years early.”

He hugged her and ran off to his room to get himself ready to talk to his parents that evening. Most of his afternoon was wasted walking around town thinking about how to say that he was Danny Phantom. His head began to ache and that’s when he decided to stop thinking.

Too much work. I could probably come up with a million ways to tell them and none of them will feel natural. Oh well. Here goes everything…

He walked himself home and found his mom cooking his favorite food that she was able to cook. She smiled as he walked in the door and offered to set the table for dinner. She nodded in agreement and pointed her head towards the cabinet to show where the plates were.

Danny slightly smiled back and slowly went to work at the dinner table. Jazz came down the stairs from her room, nose in a book like always, while Jack wandered up from the lab at the smell of food, still working on a project. The smell of Maddie’s meatloaf made Danny’s mouth water and he laughed as his dad tripped on the stairs coming up to eat.

“Jasmine, Jack, no books or projects at the dinner table. You know the rules.”

The two of them both sighed and put down what they were doing as Danny helped his mom serve food.

“Danny, thank you so much for your help tonight. I don’t think I could handle this myself.”

“Sure thing, mom. I hope you don’t mind if I talk to you all after dinner about something important?”

“Of course not. I’ll call a family meeting after the kitchen is cleaned up.”

Danny smiled awkwardly and tried not to sigh again as his nerves made his stomach upset. He forced some food down and told his mom he would help clean up after he checked to make sure he had no homework left to do. His mom nodded back at him and the rest of the meal was in silence… until his dad started explaining his newest project.

“So I don’t know what to call it yet, but my newest work should be able to destroy any ghost. One zap from it, and the ghost will be no more! It’ll be great!”

“Jack, that sounds lovely, but you know that’s not possible. You can’t just make the ghost disappear.”

She put another mouthful of food on her fork as she explained to Jack how that worked, and Danny watched carefully as they talked about specific ghosts, finally ending on the one ghost they hated the most. Him.

“I’m gonna start cleaning up the kitchen!”

Danny blurted this out to keep from having to listen to his parents any longer. He ran to the kitchen and started putting dishes in the dishwasher as fast as he could. Tears ran down his face as he heard that they wanted to destroy that specific ghost forever. He wiped his eyes and made sure it didn’t look like he had been crying as his sister came in to help him.

“Danny? Are you alright?”

“No. Did you hear them? They want to kill me! If they don’t accept me tonight, that’s gonna be not only the end of Danny Phantom, but the end of Danny Fenton as well.”

“Danny, I…”

“It doesn’t matter, Jazz. I made up my mind. I’m telling them tonight, one way or another.”

“I get it. I love you, Danny.”

He gave off a sad smile as she hugged him before walking back to her book and acting like nothing happened between them. That made Danny feel even better. Jazz wouldn’t tell them anything because he had asked her to. She really did care. He felt his mood lighten to that thought.

Danny looked back to what he was doing in the kitchen and realized that he was already done and he was going to have to tell his parents about his powers. He gulped nervously as he started the dishwasher and finished the hand washed dishes in the sink.

His nerves tingled as he walked back into the kitchen. His mom smiled at him as he sat down and waited for everyone to stop their conversations so that he could speak and start what he dreaded doing. Danny knew that once he started telling them his secret, he couldn’t go back.

“Okay, Danny. You said you needed to talk to us?”

His mom had a sweet voice that he enjoyed hearing. It calmed him to know that she loved at least half of him.

“Can I talk to you about the ghost boy? Danny Phantom?”

“Ooooh, that guy’s been a pain in my neck for far too long. I catch that ghost kid I’m gonna rip him apart molecule by molecule!”

Danny looked to the floor in disappointment as his dad screamed the same thing as always. Even if they did love half of him, they hated the other half. He felt tears sting the back of his eyes and had to hold back from blurting out his secret suddenly as he felt pain wash over him. For all he knew, this was going to be the last few minutes of Danny Fenton.

“Sweetie? What’s the matter? You didn’t become friends with him, did you? Did he hurt you in any way?! Danny, what about the ghost boy?”

His mom sounded scared. Danny looked up at them after thinking for a minute and biting back his tears.

“Well, you know how you said that the ghost boy was no good and that you would never understand why he fakes helping humans?”

“Yeah, what of it?” His dad started blabbering, “he’s only trying to get on our good side so that we don’t destroy his world. He’s clearly evil.”

“And very good for research. If we can dissect him, we may find what destroyed him and how ghosts came to be.”

His mom had said the worst. They wanted the ghost boy gone. Danny took a deep breath and let it out before telling them something more to start hinting at his secret.

“But what if he isn’t evil? If he’s really saving people because he’s a good ghost. Not all ghosts are evil.”

Danny heard his dad snort at his response and his mom responded to him, using everything she had to keep her voice calm to him.

“He’s just a ghost, sweetie. Who cares?”

“But what if he’s not just a ghost?”

Danny was on the brink of tears and screamed his one sentence at his family. They all sat there in shock except Jazz. She still had her nose in a book.

“Danny, you know that that’s not possible. He’s only a ghost.”

Danny took a few heavy breaths before responding.

“He’s not just a ghost. I can prove it. I promise you, he’s not just a ghost.”

Danny saw the faces of his family change, and Jazz even put her book down enough that he could see her face. She looked worried and mouthed “be careful” to him. Danny looked at the floor.

“I didn’t want to tell you guys this, and I want you to know, I’ve been lying to you for a really long time… I'M GOING GHOST!”

Danny felt the same sensation as always as his white rings appeared at his waist. His family watched them travel his body and his regular outfit became his ghostly alter ego’s. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again they were glowing an eerie shade of ghostly green. His parents were awestruck.

They looked over the ghost boy and looked around for Danny. He nervously watched them, and when they didn’t find their son anywhere, Maddie pulled an ecto-weapon on him.

“Where is he? What have you done to our boy?”

Danny laughed a bit.

“It’s me, mom. I am your boy. I’m not just a ghost. I’m human. Mom, Dad, I’m half ghost.”

Jazz walked over to Danny and gave him a hug as Maddie lowered her ecto-blaster.

“I’m proud of you little brother. You finally told them. I guess that’s fewer secrets around the house for us, huh?”

“Looks like.”

“That’s impossible!” Jack bellowed. “How could our son have had ghost powers and not tell us? This is a trick.”

“Sorry, Dad. But I’m not just Danny Phantom, I’m Danny Fenton as well.”

Danny returned himself to human form and had his shocked parents sit down.

“You guys need to know everything, and I guess it’s time I tell you.”

Danny explained to his parents about the accident, how he got his powers, how he learned to use them and that he and his friends were always put fighting ghosts. He explained how he had been feeling recently and why he finally wanted to tell them. And he explained how it messed with his school work.

Finally, Danny explained why he didn’t tell them about his powers.

“I didn’t want to tell you because of how you acted towards me while I was in my ghost form. That accident was almost four years ago, and each day longer makes it so that you hated me even more. I’m sorry. You never knew it was me.”

“Awww gee, Danny. You know we love ya.”

Danny smiled at his dad and looked at his mom who was finally smiling back at him.

“Danny, I can understand why you didn’t want to tell us. I guess it’s true that Danny Phantom isn’t evil. Because he’s you. The sweetest person I know.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“We love you, Danny. Whether you’re a ghost, boy, or something in between. We love YOU. Every half of you.”

“Dad, I’m not very good at math, but either way, there would only be two halves of me..”

His family laughed a bit while his dad worked that over in his brain with a confused look on his face, and Danny smiled. His mom hugged him and Jazz smiled as he got kissed on the forehead.

Danny was grinning back at his parents when his ghost sense went off and he saw Technus flying off outside.

“Would uh… would you excuse me for a minute?”

Danny’s mom looked at him and attempted to smile. She said something that made Danny freeze in his tracks.

“Be careful, Danny. We love you… ghost boy.”

Danny turned and smiled back at her, his heart filling with joy as he looked at his parents stood with each other and told him that they loved and accepted both halves of him. They still cared.

“Technus isn’t all that dangerous, so, if you have any questions to ask me, I’ll be right back. I’m going ghost!”

Danny once again transformed to his ghost half and smiled with confidence.

“Here I come Technus,”

Danny decided to turn back to his parents as he started flying away through the ceiling. He had one more secret to reveal

“Oh, and you may want to think about a ghost named Plasmius and his relation to Vlad.”

Danny winked and phased through the ceiling, meeting perfectly with Technus as he tried to fly away. It took Danny minutes, but he was easily able to capture him in the Fenton Thermos. He smiled and then remembered his family. They were going to have questions, Danny could feel it.

Danny was floating a few inches off the ground when he changed back to his human state, and he slowly fell to the ground, before sitting on the couch, smiling widely.

“Vlad and Plasmius? I… I don’t understand. And how did you looking at the portal give you powers?”

His mom sounded worried. Like there was something horribly wrong with her son. Danny sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he thought of how to answer her.

“Let me explain this in order. So with my powers, I went into the portal after you guys couldn’t get it to work. Turns out you put the ‘on’ button, inside the portal. I ended up putting my hand on it by accident and I was fused with ghost powers and became half ghost. So, there was a huge flash of light, and all I remember is the pain until I woke up with my powers a while later. Anyway, remember when Vlad got hit by that blast from your proto-portal? Same thing. Almost. His turned to ectoacne while mine knocked me out for a while. But he’s had his powers 20 years longer than me. Vlad Masters is the Wisconsin ghost, also known as Vlad Plasmius.”

He sighed as he got that off his chest.

“Is he good?”

“Nah. Plasmius is evil. Totally bad dude. It’s why I hate being around him and why I’ve never been supportive of him. He’s sort of my arch nemesis and stuff.”

“Has he hurt you?”

His dad sounded mad, and Danny decided to tell the truth. He promised himself no more lies.

“Actually, yes. He’s made clones of me, tortured me to try and get my morph DNA and has even tried to kill you so that he can marry Mom and have me as his perfect half-ghost son.”

His mom went running to him and Danny felt himself get squeezed extremely tightly as she tried to protect him.

“I won’t let him hurt you again. He’s going down! Oh, my baby boy…”

More lipstick covered his face as she hovered over him protectively.

“Mom, it’s okay. I can handle him. I’ve done it for four years.”

“We don’t care Danny. Even if he was my best friend in college, he was a jerk to my son. And I won’t let that happen anymore.”

Maddie nodded strongly in agreement. Danny smiled yet again and laughed a bit.

“You guys are nuts.”

Jazz ruffled his hair and then went back to reading. Danny looked to one side, and then the other. His parents were there for him. Constantly saying they loved him. He had been accepted. He might have had a gun held to his head for a few minutes, but he was accepted now that they believed him. He felt like himself again. He felt like the Danny he knew when before he was hit with the worry of telling his parents about his powers. Danny grinned as he was told once more that he was loved by his parents.

“I love you guys, too.”


End file.
